Engineering Failure Analysis 23 (2012) 55–62

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Engineering Failure Analysis

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/engfailanal

Effect of ambient temperature on stress, deformation and temperature

of dump truck tire
Y. Li a,⇑, W.Y. Liu b, S. Frimpong a
a
University of Missouri – Rolla, MO 65409, United States
b
Washington University in St. Louis, MO 63130, United States

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The influence of the ambient temperature on the stress, deformation and temperature of a
Received 5 January 2012 dump truck tire has been predicted with the virtual tire model established in this work by
Accepted 25 February 2012 employing the finite element method (FEM) and Algor software. The nonlinear stress–
Available online 8 March 2012
strain relationship of tire rubber material has been given by Mooney–Rivlin material
model. The hysteresis and loss strain energy density have been related to give the heat gen-
Keywords: eration rate. A two-dimensional (2D) FE model of rolling radial tire has been built in Algor
Dump truck tire
environment according to the actual construction of bridgestone 24.00R35 tire adopted for
Finite element method
Modeling
Caterpillar Earth Mover 775E Model. The model consists of the tread, belt, carcass, air filled
Simulation volume and tire–rim interface. The material properties of the components and boundary
Stress-deformation conditions from tire–rim contact and tire–road contact are considered. The mechanical
event simulation (MES) with nonlinear material model and the steady-state heat transfer
analysis have been performed. The analysis results of the tire stress, deformation and tem-
perature are presented under the ambient temperatures ranging from 40 to 40 °C condi-
tions at the Syncrude mine in Canada. The results show that the effect of the ambient
temperature on the tire deformation is larger than on the tire stress. The increase of ambi-
ent temperature will cause the tire temperature rise. This study provides a comprehensive
modeling and analysis that provide key to avoid tire temperature related failure.
Published by Elsevier Ltd.

1. Introduction

The dump truck is widely used as transportation equipment in surface mining operation. The dump truck tires are capital-
intensive, and in poor working environment they can be associated with high maintains coasts. For example, the dump truck
tires are operated under very severe climate conditions, with the ambient temperatures ranging from 40 to 40 °C at the
Syncrude mine in Alberta, Canada. The key to maintaining machine health and longevity depends on tire life. The most
important factor governing tire life is temperature+, which causes deterioration in both the rubber and tire construction
[10,3]. The dump truck tire failures may be initiated by overstressing the tire resulting from the high stress and deformation
[3]. To avoid to temperature related failures, the monitor of tire stress, deformation and temperature distribution under a
variety of ambient temperatures is a critical factor. Many researches have been carried out to evaluate the tire stress and
temperature using finite element method (FEM) [4,5,8,11,7,9]. The steady-state temperature distributions for rolling tires
were predicted by Ebbott et al. [4]. A three-dimensional (3D) FE model was created considering energy loss and heat gen-
eration. The study focused on the effect of different heat transfer boundary conditions on the temperature distributions.

⇑ Corresponding author. Address: Room 226, McNutt Hall, 1870 Miner Circle, Department of Mining and Nuclear Engineering, University of Missouri –
Rolla, Rolla, MO 65409, United States. Tel.: +1 573 341 7683.
E-mail address: liyinglzh@yahoo.com (Y. Li).

1350-6307/$ - see front matter Published by Elsevier Ltd.

doi:10.1016/j.engfailanal.2012.02.004
56 Y. Li et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 23 (2012) 55–62

Based on this research, Lin and Hwang [9] indicated the rolling tire FE model by relating the hysteresis loss energy to heat
generation rate. The tire equivalent stress–strain and temperate distributions have been found under the different pneu-
matic pressures and speeds. The 3D tire models show promising results but are too expensive for an efficient calculation.
However, in all of these FE models, the air filled volume was not be modeled effectively, and boundary conditions were ap-
plied to the carcass surface rather than to the tire–rim interface surface. To make the tire model to be higher accuracy and
reliability, an improved 2D FE model was established by Fervers [5] for simulating the air filled tire–soil interaction. The ba-
sic components of a tire were created based on a mechanical reproduction. In contrast to the existing 3D tire models, the
model is simple to handle and allows for fast computer simulation because the 2D model can reduce the element number,
save the calculation time, and optimize the element. It is important that model gave more reliable simulated results. But, the
model was only used to estimate the soil deformation and tire stress-deformation-thermal behavior was not addressed.
Extensive future studies have been proposed for the investigation of dump truck tire stress, deformation and temperature
distributions under the different climate conditions in Syncrude mine in Alberta, Canada.
In our lab, a full vehicle model of dump truck has been developed to capture the dynamic behavior of the tires as the truck
was working in Syncrude mine using multi-body and soil dynamics [6]. Simplified 3D FE tire models were built and the von
Mises stresses of rolling tires in response to the haul road deformation were tested. The results show that high stress field
applied to the tire around contact point between tire and road. This study seems to indicate that it is necessary to further
investigate the stress-deformation and temperature distribution of the rolling tire under a variety of season conditions. Algor
is used as modeling and simulation tool [1]. It can handle full nonlinear FE analyses, such as analysis of nonlinear material
problem, large deformation problem (nonlinear geometrical problem), and contact problem. Its MES provides nonlinear
material models to simulate a wide range of real-world material behavior. It offers the combination of motion and stress
analysis to produce the nonlinear stress–strain curves, large deformations, additional displacements and thermal effects.
The temperature distributions can be demonstrated by the steady-state thermal analysis. In this study, two analyses are in-
cluded such as MES with nonlinear material model and steady-state thermal analysis. 2D FE tire model has been employed in
great detail in order to accurately capture the stress, deformation and temperature. The model takes into account the major
components of a tire including the tread, steel belts, carcass, air-filled volume and tire–rim interface. The effect of ambient
temperature on the stress, deformation and temperature of tire has been addressed.

2. Tire construction

Fig. 1 shows a radial tire, which is inflated to fit a wheel for an automobile [12]. It is essentially a flexible pressure vessel
utilizing structural members to contain the hoop tension resulting from the inflation pressure. A dump truck tire structure
comprises composite layers of different materials such as nylon, steel cable and rubber [3] and exhibits strongly nonlinear
deformation characteristics. Rubber is main material to form tire. The main rubber parts are the tread, side wall, bead and
chafer. Also rubber is utilized as a protective coating and sealant over the structural members. The bead connects the tire to
the wheel by the bead wire. The carcass and belt maintain the shape of the tire when it is inflated. The carcass is fixed by
wrapping around the bead wire on both sides, and the orientation is almost radial. The belt restrains the carcass expansion
to keep the tire contact the ground evenly. Tread contacts with the road surface. The sidewall protects the tire from bending
when turning, from stones by the roadside. The chafer prevents leakage of air and wear due to friction with the wheel flange.

3. Mathematical model of rubber material

Rubber is the main element of the tire. The theoretical modeling of rubber material is the main step for the MES and stea-
dy-state heat transfer analysis of dump truck tire.

Fig. 1. A radial tire [12].

 Y. Li et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 23 (2012) 55–62 57

3.1. Mooney–Rivilin material model

Tire rubber exhibits large elastic deformation. Its material property shows a nonlinear stress–strain relationship and hy-
per-elastic incompressible behavior. Therefore, a hyper-elastic incompressible material model is available for the analysis of
rubber materials. The model can only be used in plane stress analysis and nonlinear incremental analysis for the rubber ele-
ments. The stress–strain relationship is well described by the Mooney–Rivilin material formulation as given in Eq. (1).
1 C 10
  
r¼2 k C 01 þ ð1Þ
k2 k
where r is the stress, k = e + 1 is the extension ratio, e is the strain, and C01 and C10 are the Mooney–Rivlin constants.
The energy loss of tire is caused by the nodal displacement of tire rubber material elements, which produces the strain
energy. The strain energy per unit volume is referred as the strain energy density. The rubber mechanics behavior can be
described in terms of the element strain energy density, which is given by the Mooney–Rivlin model with the nonlinear
incremental general FE formulation as given in Eq. (2) [2].
t
W ¼ C 01 ðt I1  3Þ þ C 10 ðt I2  3Þ ð2Þ
t t t
where W is the strain energy density at time t, and I1 and I2 are the first and second strain invariants at time t and are ob-
tained by Eqs. (3) and (4), respectively.
t
I1 ¼ t0 eii ¼ t0 e11 þ t0 e22 ð3Þ
t
I2 ¼ t
e t
e  e
0 11 0 22 ðt0 12 Þ2 ð4Þ
t
where e is the strain tensor of dimension i  j at time t referred to the configuration at time 0. The strain energy density of
0 ij
each deformed element is calculated at each time step using FEA code of Algor software. After defining the material prop-
erties of the tire FE model, and applying loads and boundary conditions, the MES with nonlinear material model analysis is
performed by employing Algor software. The distribution of the tire stress, nodal displacement and deformation can be
estimated.

3.2. Heat generation rate

The loss energy is the main heat source for the temperature rise in a rolling tire. Rubber material is considered as an iso-
tropic hyper-elastic material. During tire high speed driving, tires deform repeatedly and rapidly, their hyper-elastic behav-
ior leads to hysteresis. The hysteresis constant, H, given as Eq. (5).

E00
H ¼ qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð5Þ
ðE0 Þ2 þ ðE00 Þ2

where E0 and E00 are the storage and loss moduli, respectively. The temperature of tire rises from the heat generation due to
hysteresis effect. The heat generation rate, tQ, means loss strain energy density per unit element and per unit time, which is
derived by Eq. (6).

Vc E00 V c
Q ¼ t WH ¼ tW ð6Þ
2p R
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
2pR ðE0 Þ2 þ ðE00 Þ2

where R is the tire radius and Vc is the tire speed. After loading the heat generation rate to the FE tire model, and applying
heat convection and boundary conditions, the steady-state thermal analysis is performed by employing Algor software. Tire
temperature distribution can be obtained.

4. 2D FE tire modeling and simulation

2D FE model of the radial dump truck tire is developed to perform the MES with nonlinear material model analysis and
heat transfer analysis based on the following five assumptions: (i) tire consists of tread, belt, carcass, air filled volume and
rim [5]; (ii) the tire is a deformable body and the wheel rim is a rigid body, so the inflated tire is clamped at the rim area
[7,13]; (iii) the tread is rubber material with isotropic and homogeneous without lug [9]; and (iv) the belt, carcass and air
filled volume are elastic, isotropic and homogenous [9]. Fig. 2 shows a flowchart for modeling and simulating a dump truck
tire in Algor environment. The FE tire model refers to the geometrical structure of 775E 24.00R35-bridgestone-tire as an
example. The material properties including mechanical and thermal properties are summarized in Table 1[8,1,11,7,9].
Fig. 3a–b shows the tire FE models for two types of analysis, respectively. It can be noted that the simplified geometrical
model consists of the tread, belt cord, carcass cord, air filled volume, and tire–rim interface with outer diameters of 2.1,
2, 1.9, 1.8 and 0.9 m, respectively. In Fig. 3a, the tread, belt and carcass are mashed by using the mixed element shape with
a mesh density of 400, the minimum allowable internal angle of 15° for all of the element’s faces, geometric ratio of 1.25,
58 Y. Li et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 23 (2012) 55–62

Fig. 2. Flowchart for modeling and simulating dump truck tire.

Table 1
Material properties used in tire FE model.

Tread Belt Carcass Air

Winter Spring/Fall Summer
Mooney–Rivlin constants (MPa)
C01 8.061 2.0477 0.550966 – – –
C10 1.806 1.1859 0.00373778
Density q (kg/m3) 1400 1140 1100 7644 1390 –
Modulus of elasticity E (GPa) – 55 0.794 –
Poison’s ratio m – 0.3 0.45 –
Thermal conductivity l (W/m °C) 0.293 60.5 0.293 0.055
Hysteresis constant H 0.1 – – –

close factor of 4 and refine factor of 1. The tread is created as the solid elements with Mooney–Rivin hyper-elastic rubber
property which is included two Mooney constants C01 and C10 and one density q. The belt and carcass are built by the shell
elements with isotropic elastic material, which is described by three parameters, namely the material properties, modulus of
elasticity E, Poisson’s ratio m, and density q. The material properties are chosen for three tire components as shown in Table 1.
The tire temperature distributions are characterized by the steady-state heat transfer analysis using FEM. Based on the tire
MES model in Fig. 3a, the air filled volume is mashed to create the heat transfer model as shown in Fig. 3b. The air filled
volume is created as 2D solid elements with isotropic material model and planer geometry type. Thermal properties of
the tire components are described by the thermal conductivity l and Hysteresis constant H as given in Table 1. By loading
and boundary conditions, the stress, nodal displacement, deformation and temperature distributions of the 775E 24.00R35
tire are simulated under a variety of ambient temperature conditions. The tire simulation and analysis are focused on fol-
lowing two sequences that includes MES with nonlinear material model and steady-state heat transfer analysis.

4.1. MES with nonlinear material model analysis

4.1.1. Boundary and loading conditions

Assuming the tire is under static state, the boundary problem becomes the contact between the tread and road as well as
free. The boundary conditions are applied to the nodes adjacent to the bottom boundary of the tread, where displacements
are set as zero in the three directions of x, y, and z components as shown in Fig. 3a. According to the assumption in Section 4,
the inflated tire is clamped at the rim area. The model is subjected to loading in two sequential steps. The initial loading is
caused by the tire inflation pressure, which is assumed to be uniform within the tire. In a 775E 24.00R35-bridgestone-tire,
the inflation pressure of 655 kPa acts to its inner surface [3]. A constant surface force is added to every node at the inner
 Y. Li et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 23 (2012) 55–62 59

Tread
Air filled volume
Belt

Carcass

Tire-rim
interface

(a) (b)
Fig. 3. 2D 775E 24.00R35-bridgestone-tire model: (a) MES with nonlinear material model and (b) steady-state heat transfer model.

Max Nodal Displacement (m)

0.00
Max von Mises Stress (Pa)

Tire working in winter

1.5x108 Tire working in spring/fall
-0.01 Tire working in summer
1.2x108
-0.02
9.0x107
-0.03
6.0x107
-0.04
3.0x107 Tire working in winter
Tire working in spring/fall
Tire working in summer -0.05
0.0

0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Time (s) Time (s)
(a) (b)
Fig. 4. Maximum von Mises stress: (a) and nodal displacement and (b) with simulation time of 1 s in winter, spring/fall and summer.

surface of the tire and the direction of this force is normal to the surface. The inflated static tire is then subjected to vertical
loading from the wheel through the application of a uniformly distributed edge load at the tire–rim contact region.
The tire maximum nodal stress and displacement are investigated during the simulation time of 1 s (s) with 10 time steps
under the working conditions of the truck in winter, spring/fall and summer. The tread Mooney properties are set to three
cases according to the four seasons, because rubber property has great variation with temperature. They are: in winter,
C01 = 8.061 MPa, C10 = 1.806 MPa, and q = 1400 kg/m3 [8]; in spring/fall, C01 = 2.0477 MPa, C10 = 1.1859 MPa, and
q = 1140 kg/m3 [1] and in summer, C01 = 0.550966 MPa, C10 = 0.00373778 MPa, and q = 1100 kg/m3 [7]. Assuming that the
material properties of other components do not change with temperature, for four seasons, the belt properties [7] are set
to E = 55 GPa, m = 0.3 and q = 7644 kg/m3; the carcass properties [7] are selected as E = 794 MPa, m = 0.45 and q = 1390 kg/
m3; the inflation pressure 655 kPa is recommended by the Caterpillar Inc. [3]; and the wheel load of 3.3 MN is provided
by the Syncrude mine. Fig. 4 illustrates the variations of the maximum von Mises stresses and nodal displacements with time
steps of 10 during 1 s for four seasons. It can be seen that their maximum values of nodal stress and displacement increase
with time from 0 to 1 s. For a given step, the calculated maximum von Mises stress and nodal displacement values increase
from winter through spring/fall to summer.
In general, the maximum values of stress, nodal displacement and deformation at the time step of 10 are also the greatest
ones among 10 steps. The tire contours of stress, displacement and deformation are animated at time step of 10 for four sea-
sons below.
The FE tire model is analyzed to evaluate the tire stress fields. Fig. 5a–c depicts the von Mises stress contours at time step
10 on plane Y–Z that is parallel to the truck moving direction for four seasons. For a given season, the stress decreases from
the tire bottom to top along the whole circumference. There is maximum von Mises stress in the belt layer in the vicinity of
the center of contact patch. This result agrees with the simulation result of Guan et al. [7]. In their study, a 3D FE model of a
rolling radial tire 195/60R14 has been created considering the geometric nonlinearity due to large deformation, material
nonlinearities of cord–rubber composites, and the nonlinear boundary conditions from tire–rim contact and tire–road con-
tact. The effect of the belt cord angle on the radial tire stress is studied under different rolling states. The result shows that
the maximum von Mises stress concentration occurs at the belt layer. Therefore, the belt layer is the principal loading
component. In Fig. 5a–c, it can be noted that the maximum von Mises stress increases from winter through spring/fall to
60 Y. Li et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 23 (2012) 55–62

Fig. 5. Stress contours of tire at time step 10 for four seasons: (a) winter; (b) spring/fall; and (c) summer.

Fig. 6. Node displacement contours of tire at time step 10 for four seasons: (a) winter; (b) spring/fall; and (c) summer.

summer. The maximum von Mises stress values of 1.46  108, 1.48  108 and 1.56  108 Pa are obtained for the tire worked
in winter, spring/fall and summer, respectively. The difference of the maximum tire stress values, which defined as the ratio
of absolute value of |max stress at summer – max stress at winter| to the max stress at summer, is 6.4%.
The FE tire model is simulated further to derive the tire deformation fields. Fig. 6a–c displays the nodal displacement con-
tours on plane Y–Z at the time step of 10 for four seasons. It can be seen that the high nodal displacement fields are accu-
mulated in two sides close to the bottom of the tire and the area of the high nodal displacement increase with the increase of
the ambient temperature. Also, the maximum nodal displacement values increase from winter through spring/fall to sum-
mer. The maximum nodal displacement values of 0.034, 0.04 and 0.055 m are found for four seasons, respectively. The dif-
ference of maximum nodal displacement values, which defined as the ratio of absolute value of |max nodal displacement at
summer – max nodal displacement at winter| to the max nodal displacement at summer, is 37%. It is obvious that the in-
crease of the ambient temperature causes to large tire nodal displacement, which is well indicated by the large deformation
property of rubber. Therefore, it seems that the effect of temperature on the tire nodal displacement is greater than on the
tire stress. The tire deformation is more sensitive than the tire stress to temperature. This hints that the better tire design can
be achieved though having rubber layers with hyper-elastic property as the tread layer. Nevertheless, other properties such
as thermal properties should also be considered in the design stage.
The traction, braking, ride and pavement loading characteristics of the dump truck are directly related to the tire defor-
mation. The tire model is thus simulated to derive the deformation fields. Fig. 7a–c displays the deformed shape contours on
plane Y–Z at the time step of 10 for four seasons. For each season, it is obvious that the maximum deformation occurs, as
expected, at the contact patch of the tire bottom. Regarding the surface deformation around contact zone at the bottom
of tire, the highest compaction layer occurs at the tread. The deformations of the belt and carcass are smaller than the tread.
This result has been observed by Guan et al. [7], in which the loading status of the belt cord have been analyzed. The result
shows that belt deformation is small because its strength is high. And, it has a firm bending construction and can bind the
carcass tightly in result that the carcass has small deformation. The tread layer is the main deformation component. Com-
paring Fig. 7a–c, the compacted deformations of the tread increase from winter through spring/fall to summer. The maxi-
mum tread compaction deformation occurs at summer and the minimum one does at winter. Tire rubber exhibits large
elastic deformation. Its deflection at full load is the maximum indicating more flexible tire and more comfortable ride,
but more heat generated.
 Y. Li et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 23 (2012) 55–62 61

Fig. 7. Deformation contours of tire (scale factor 3) at time step 10 in four seasons: (a) winter; (b) spring/fall; and (c) summer.

Fig. 8. 2D temperature fields of tire at different seasons: (a) winter; (b) spring/fall; and (c) summer.

4.2. Steady-state heat transfer analysis

4.2.1. Loading and boundary conditions

When a tire is rolling, the energy loss of the tire components will be translated into internal heat sources. The steady state
temperature distribution of the tire is caused by the balance of these internal heart sources between two components. The
heart conductions are happened between two parts, such as the tread and belt, belt and carcass and carcass and air filled
volume. The thermal conductivities of the tread, belt, carcass and air filled volume are given as 0.293, 60.5, 0.293, and
0.055 W/m °C, respectively [9] as given in Table 1. The major heat source is derived from the tread [9,4] and its heat gener-
ation rate obtained by Eq. (6) is applied to each rubber element. Where, the hysteresis is set to 0.1 [9] and strain energy den-
sity can be obtained from the tire MES in Section 3.1. The boundary conditions governing the heat exchange between the tire
and its environment are considered as the forced convection. The forced convection coefficients are applied at the outer and
inner surface by 5.9 + 3.7v W/m2 °C (v the speed between air and tire) [4]. The ambient temperature range from 40 to 40 °C
is given by the Syncrude mine in Canada. The maximum tire level-off temperature of 93 °C is the limit Caterpillar recom-
mends [3].
Fig. 8a–c shows the temperature fields of the tire in winter, spring/fall and summer, respectively. The speed between the
air and tire is selected as 18 m/s [3]. The ambient temperatures are set to an extremely low value of 40 °C for winter, an
average value of 20 °C for spring/fall and an extremely high value of 40 °C for summer. It can be found that when the tire
temperature is coming to the steady state, the temperature distribution has an axis-symmetric distribution. For a given
ambient temperature, the tire temperature increases from the tread through the belt to the carcass, and decrease from
the carcass to the tire inner surface. Then, the tire temperature continues to decrease gradually from the tire inner surface
through the air filled volume to the tire–rim interface. The low temperature fields occur at the tire outer surface and the tire–
rim interface and the high temperature field does at the belt. Comparing Fig. 8a–c, it can be found that the increase of ambi-
ent temperature will cause the tire temperature rise. The maximum tire temperatures of 8.5 °C, 73.5 °C and 88.5 °C for win-
ter, spring/fall and summer, respectively, are obtained at the belt. It may be noted that the maximum temperature is less
than the temperature limit of 93 °C recommended by Caterpillar [3].
The temperature fields of a pneumatic tire (9.00-20 14PR) have been tested under a variety of the ambient temperature
range from 14 to 30 °C using the experiment method by Zhao et al. [14]. The loading conditions are given as: the inflation
pressure of 770 kPa, the speed between the air and tire of 25 m/s and wheel load of 25 kN. The results show that the ambient
temperature has a great influence on the tire temperature. The steady-state tire temperature field has an axis-symmetric
62 Y. Li et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 23 (2012) 55–62

distribution for all ambient temperature conditions. The tire temperature rises linearly with the increase of the ambient tem-
perature. For a given ambient temperature, the tire temperature increases from the tire outer surface to the belt and de-
creases from the belt to the tire inner surface. The maximum tire temperature occurs at the belt and the minimum one
does at the tire outer surface. While an ambient temperature is selected as 25 °C, the maximum tire temperature of 75 °C
is obtained. The result in this study, in which the maximum tire temperature of 73.5 °C is found while an ambient temper-
ature is set as 20 °C, is very close to this experimental result. It can be noted that it is different to match the simulation re-
sults here and these experiential data exactly because the tire size and working conditions used to the simulation and
experiment are different. However, the simulation results have the same trend as the experiment results.
The dump truck tires are subject to the high stress and temperature fields in the belt and the large deformation in the
tread. The heat separation easily occurs near the belt ends. Therefore, the monitor of the temperature gradient, stress and
deformation is useful to resist tire damage, especially the fatigue failure, and to improve the tire durability and reliability.

5. Conclusions

The temperature distributions of dump truck tire have been simulated and the important effects of ambient temperature
on truck tire stress and deformation have been discussed. A 2D virtual prototype of air-filled 775E 24.00R35-bridgestone ra-
dial tire has been developed by employing FEM. The model takes into account the major components of a radial tire includ-
ing the tread, steel belts, carcass and air filled volume. The tread is created as the solid elements with hyper-elastic rubber
property. The behavior of rubber for the tread is described by the Mooney–Rivlin material formulation. The belt and carcass
are built with the shell elements and isotropic elastic material. Algor, a nonlinear finite element analysis code, is used as
modeling and simulation tool. Truck tires are operated under very severe conditions, with the ambient temperatures ranging
from 40 to 40 °C at the Syncrude mine in Canada.
The stress, nodal displacement and deformation distribution of tire versus simulation time of 1 s are well predicted for the
tire operated in winter, spring/fall, and summer. The results show that the maximum von Mises stress concentrates on the
belt layer and increases with the increase of the ambient temperature. High nodal displacement fields are accumulated in
two sides close to the bottom of the tire. The maximum nodal displacement increases from winter through spring/fall to
summer. The difference of the maximum tire stress values between summer and winter is 6.4% and the difference of the
maximum nodal displacement values is 37%. Therefore, the effect of temperature on the tire nodal displacement is greater
than on the tire stress. The result of surface deformation simulation indicates the highest compaction layer occurs at the
tread around contact zone at the bottom of tire in summer. The tire temperature distributions are well visualized under a
variety of ambient temperature. The result shows that the increase of the ambient temperature will cause the tire temper-
ature rise, which seems more quickly at the belt and carcass layers. When the ambient temperature is set to an extremely
high value of 40 °C, the maximum tire temperature of 88.5 °C is obtained which is less than the maximum tire level-off tem-
perature of 93 °C suggested by the Ton-MPH formula [3]. This study provides a solid foundation to further model a detailed
3D FE tire for evaluating the stress, deformation and temperature distributions of whole dump truck tire.

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